


Two Stars

by JadeNightTheWriter



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Character Study, Day 2: Flowers/Soulmates, Drabble, Kam Week, Kam Week 2020, M/M, One Shot, POV Alternating, been on here for a year and i still don't know how to tag properly, idk - Freeform, idk this is just on the line between a drabble and a one shot, is this light angst or heavy angst?, ish?, that's ok though, whichever you think i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27820609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeNightTheWriter/pseuds/JadeNightTheWriter
Summary: Keefe has a solid black star. Tam has the outline of a star in gold. Neither thought they cared, until they did.
Relationships: Keefe Sencen/Tam Song
Comments: 15
Kudos: 22





	Two Stars

**Author's Note:**

> :D suffer with me because I absolutely cannot write fluff and this ship has so much potential for angst.

Keefe had a mark on his collarbone, just low enough that he could hide it beneath most tunics. When he was little, he thought it was a birthmark. He never paid attention to it, until one day, while Elwin was changing a bandage on his chest.

Over the years it had expanded and darkened, forming a black star that looked like it was made of a shadow, ready to vanish if he blinked. 

“This looks like a soulmark,” Elwin had said. 

Keefe had rolled his eyes and grinned. 

“No way. It’s probably something else.” 

He’d spent an hour later that day, tracing the lines and memorizing every tiny detail. It was definitely, unavoidably, unquestionably a soulmark. An incomplete one, yes, but a soulmark nonetheless. He hoped that whoever his soulmate was, they wouldn’t mind all the brokenness he came with.

* * *

Tam had a mark on his back, in the very center between his shoulderblades. A golden star, just the outline etched onto his skin, glowing in stark contrast to his dark hair.

“She must be so pretty!” his mother had said. Tam closed his eyes against the words that threatened to bubble out. _I don’t like girls_.

When Linh was banished and he left with her, he decided he’d never see his soulmate again. He didn’t need her, he didn’t _want_ her, and she definitely wouldn’t want him. And besides, it was impossible anyway. There was no use wishing for something he’d never have.

That all changed when Sophie Foster tumbled into his life, whisking him and Linh back into the Lost Cities and into a brewing underground rebellion.

Tam had met Keefe, and suddenly he cared about his soulmark for the first time in years. A small, fragile, lost golden star.

* * *

Keefe had actually hated Tam, at first. He didn’t like him, didn’t trust him, didn't like the fact that they were so similar that they _should_ have been ‘best friends’. But later on, it became a game of sorts. Just a facade they played up for appearances. 

Keefe poked fun at Tam’s bangs, Tam rolled his eyes and said something back, they never, ever got along at all, and everything was fine.

Well. Until it wasn’t.

London had happened, Keefe had come face-to-face with his _dearest_ mother again, and Tam had _left_. He had the opportunity to escape and he _hadn’t taken it_ , and Keefe didn’t know how to deal with it. He didn’t know how to deal with the fact that he was mad at Tam not for letting Gisela escape, but for the fact that he didn’t save himself. 

Sophie thought he was mad at Tam, and he was, but he was also mad at himself.

_You’re an empath, and you didn’t notice?_

Keefe hated his life. Because he had a crush on his friend-but-not-really, and he could feel every heartbeat beneath his soulmark, hoping that the black star would be Tam’s. And of course he had to realize it while Tam was held captive. 

He really, really hated his life.

* * *

Tam hadn’t trusted Keefe. Still didn’t, although now it was for a completely different reason. Before it was the wariness of a stranger, of not-quite-knowing whether he’d be safe if he closed his eyes around him. Now, it was knowing his heart was in the hands of this reckless, dangerous, beautiful boy, and Tam didn’t want to take it back.

He hated it, because Keefe almost undoubtedly knew. He didn’t trust it because if Keefe knew then what could he do to Tam? And what could he do even _without_ knowing?

Like right now, when Keefe was comforting Tam while he was possibly about to _die_.

He managed a smile, because Keefe always managed to make him smile, and turned back to the magsidian. He closed his eyes, and a tear slipped down his face, the single drop splashing down to the ground as he gathered up strands of midnight-black shadowflux. 

It sensed his feelings, and _fought_ , but Tam stilled it with a single mental command. That was the thing about the best Shades. They knew how to exert complete and total control at all times. They could be ruthless while still in pain. They knew the grey shades between black and white, right and wrong, and _thrived_ in them. 

Tam let his shadow slip across the floor to whisper into Keefe’s mind.

_I’m sorry_.

And then he let the shadowflux go. For a brief pause, less than a fraction of a second, he thought that the arrow hitting the magsidian looked like a tiny black star. And then Tam closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought! (Or if you have any questions about my vague soulmark worldbuilding and/or want to scream at me.)


End file.
